Divine Comedy

What is hell? The question has haunted humanity for ages, as our eternal future remains a mystery. Many sources have risen up to answer this question, from religious sources promoting a fiery place of torment, to philosophical sources that believe in nothingness. Many traditional sources are Christian concepts of a place for people who have done wrong to be tortured. These ideas have become ingrained in our society and belief systems, and that shows through heavily in Sartre’s work, No Exit,…

The epic progresses as Dante continues to weep and feel pity for the souls in the 4th circle admonished for their greed. Dante, upon witnessing the torture of these souls feels physical pain out of empathy, "And I, who felt my heart almost pierced through…" Dante even deigns to make a moral judgement about the tortures of hell and God's ability to serve justice, "Justice of God! Who has amassed as many strange tortures as I have seen?" This questioning of God's will and judgement shows more…

Dante’s Inferno and “The Uncommitted” Some people stay in bed all day and only get up to do the bare necessities ; while other people get up every morning with the mindset that they are going to change the world. In Dante’s Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri, nearly every punishment is intended to represent a contrapasso, a reflection of being punished equally for the sinner’s crime. Dante’s Inferno is an epic poem whose writing began in 1308 and was completed in 1320, which was a year before…

sink and him’” (VIII, 50-51), which Virgil happily gratifies it. So when Argenti is immediately attacked by the other Wrathfuls, the fact that Dante “praise[s] and thank[s] God for it” (VIII, 57), proves that This again reinforces the concept of divine justice by showing that the cruel and unusual punishments that Dante designed are not merely to shock onlookers. Using contrapasso, which means justice in which one’s crime is used to punish him, Dante makes the Wrathfuls attack each other; and…

In the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, specifically Dante’s Inferno and Boccaccio’s Decameron, both authors placed their own views and attitude on the church. Born at in similar times, Dante and Boccaccio in an era of church corruption and mix between church and state, both had similar opinions on the church. Dante’s views of the church were mostly views of criticism portrayed through the sinners he encounters in his trip through purgatory and hell while Boccaccio explained his…

The Inferno by Dante Alighieri was written in the 14th century. The epic was originally written in Italian, and over the course of time multiple translations were made, which led to multiple versions of the original text. This essay compares and contrasts the translations of Robert Pinsky(1994) and Lawrence Binyon(1933), and will focus on the opening. Although very similar, the two translations provide new perspectives through diction. The two translations provide an expansion on the original…

Similarly, Alighieri displays acrid loathing toward Bocca degli Abbati, a traitorous Florentine, through how Dante behaves and talks to the sinner himself. In Round Two of Circle Nine, where the Treacherous to Country are punished by being buried under ice up to their necks, Dante accidentally kicks Bocca in the head as he and his Master are walking across the frozen lake of Antenora, who yells up at Dante asking why he would want to cause him more pain. Alighieri wrote apathetically, “as I…

1. Why does the government target Langdon ? Answer : Because they want the information inside the titanium device. 2. What does Langdon find inside the tube ? Answer : Inside the tube, Langdon finds a cylinder seal from 3500 years B.C 3. What is written on the cylinder ? Answer : The word SALIGIA was written in a ornate calligraphy 4. What does the word SALIGIA mean ? Answer : It is a latin mnemonic invented by the Vatican in the Middle Ages to remind christians of the Seven…

Rachel Gaunt Professor Hall LITR201 December 26, 2014
 Dear Professor Hall: 
 While conducting a quick glance through the readings required to make a decision on which character I would choose for this assignment, my attention was immediately drawn to the female character of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. It was at this point in time I had decided I would utilize her as the character who I thought would likely find themselves a spot within the Circles of Hell of Dante’s Inferno. That said,…

The work ‘sin’ has different meanings for different people. Most of the people believe that sin is a transgression of the law of God (The New Testament). There are people who do not feel strongly about the mere existence of such a divine power and, therefore, consider sin to be nothing more than an act that is not acceptable in a society regardless of the fact whether it goes against any religious views or not. Hence, I, to some extent, do not agree with Dante’s ranking of sins. This is mostly…